The Latest: 4th prison worker dies after failed breakout

November 3, 2017

In this Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017 photo, police vehicles are seen outside Pasquotank Correctional Institution in Elizabeth City, N.C. Inmates at the North Carolina prison plotted an escape bid knowing they would have to hurt some prison employees, ultimately leaving two dead and a dozen other workers or fellow inmates injured, the investigating sheriff said Friday. (Thomas J. Turney /The Daily Advance via AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Latest on a deadly inmate escape attempt at a North Carolina prison (all times local):

8:45 p.m.

Officials say a fourth worker at a North Carolina prison has died from injuries suffered during an inmate escape attempt last month.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Jerry Higgins says in a news release that maintenance mechanic Geoffrey Howe died Thursday of injuries in the Oct. 12 incident at Pasquotank Correctional Institution.

Pasquotank County Sheriff Randy Cartwright has said the inmates set a fire inside the sewing plant to divert guards and apparently planned to climb over prison fences.

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This item has been corrected to show that Howe was a general maintenance mechanic — not specific to the sewing plant.

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12:30 p.m.

North Carolina prison officials still can’t put their finger on how many guards and inmates had been assaulted at an understaffed prison prior to the deadliest attempted prison breakout in state history last month.

A state prison official said Thursday they don’t know how many employees or inmates at Pasquotank Correctional Institution have been injured by violence in the past year. Three employees died and one remains gravely injured after the failed breakout three weeks ago.

State prisons spokesman Jerry Higgins said he also had no tally of how many prison workers have been assaulted at other prisons across the state since the Pasquotank attack Oct. 12. At least one corrections officer was attacked by an inmate in that time at North Carolina’s main women’s prison.